The sheer force of the sweeping kick exceeded the man's expectations. His body instinctively raised his arms to defend, but even after dispersing part of the impact, his forearms still tingled with numbness.
By the time the young boss of Kowloon Stronghold snapped out of his shock, Inori's sword fingers were already resting against his throat.
Inori hadn't been fooled at all. Even before the fight began, she had already sensed something abnormal about the man's body. Everything just now had been nothing more than an improvised performance to toy with this little gang leader.
"Mad Hatter Performance, Chapter Six—when the audience craves interaction, one must respond with enthusiasm."
"Mad Hatter uniforms are fireproof, waterproof, and shockproof. Even if struck by lightning, you'd still have a breath left. That little power bank of yours isn't anywhere near enough to overload this outfit."
"Trying to win against an official executor of the Mad Hatter organization with cheap tricks? Impossible."
Inori proudly wiped her white braided hair, which she had tied up for convenience in battle. She then glanced over the young boss' mechanically modified body. After a moment, disgust surfaced in her eyes.
"By the way... you're truly ugly. Both your body and your mind."
It wasn't just about appearance. Inori was actually rather indifferent to how others looked—after all, she had seen plenty of ugly people back when she lived in a mafia family.
What repulsed her was how this man had recklessly modified and abused his own body without any regard for it.
Despite rarely fighting humans, Inori still effortlessly overwhelmed him with sheer strength.
Of course, he was only a small-time leader. There was nothing to be proud of.
The young boss of Kowloon Stronghold trembled violently. Now, he truly felt fear. "Miss... Miss Heroine, if you need anything, just say it—I... I... f*** your mother!"
Behind his back, the man pressed something. Inori suddenly felt as if a massive boulder had smashed down onto her head. Her vision spun, her mind reeling. Even though her top hat was sturdier than a safety helmet, this attack seemed to act directly on the human body—the hat offered no protection at all.
The man pulled out a device resembling a loudspeaker. This was his true trump card—the gravity gun.
Taking advantage of Inori's brief daze, he immediately retreated out of her sword's range.
"You know what? In this shitty place, you either have to be insanely strong—or have special tricks. And me? I've got this guard weapon from Heliopolis Life Sciences."
"During one of their missions, they accidentally lost it. In the chaos, I risked my life to grab it. Clearly, Lady Luck was on my side—I survived and became the new owner of this super weapon!"
"As long as you set the range, it ignores all your equipment and directly applies ten times gravity to living organisms!"
"Even if you hide inside a tank or some heavy mech, it won't block it!"
As he spoke, his eyes gradually widened.
He saw that Inori had only let out a muffled grunt when she was hit. After that, she continued walking forward step by step, completely ignoring the gravity gun's effects.
Inori spoke calmly, "What 'Heliopolis Life Sciences guard weapon'? This clearly comes from the MOTH Engineering Department. Only they would make something this strange."
The man stared at her in horror. "Your protective suit... can even resist gravity?! W-Who exactly are you?!"
He kept retreating until his back hit the main door. There was nowhere left to go.
All he could do was watch the girl slowly approach him.
But when he glanced at her feet, each step left a deep crater in the ground. Clearly, her outfit had no way of resisting gravity.
The gravity gun only affected living beings, not objects. That meant the girl was genuinely bearing the weight.
This was utterly absurd. It was like a person walking around while carrying a dump truck on their back.
Inori stopped in front of him, her expression indifferent—as if she were looking at a corpse.
"When we met... you insulted Mad Hatter, didn't you...?"
Didn't I just casually call it 'bullshit Mad Hatter'?
Inori's terrifying gaze forced the man to keep stepping back.
This feeling... was fear!
It was as if beneath that lovely face, he could see a ferocious beast lurking within.
Inori reached out, grabbed his arm holding the gravity gun, and snapped it. Sparks burst from the severed limb.
Though he shouldn't have been able to feel pain, at this moment, it was as if sensation had returned to him.
Inori tossed the broken arm aside and said coldly, "Ten times gravity... compared to the shackles, dumbbells, and iron chains I once bore, it's nothing!"
From the dimming light in her eyes... a deep pain seemed to pierce straight into the man's soul.
"Third Brother, save me!" he shouted at no one in particular.
Perhaps he shouted too hard.
Crack!
With a short-circuiting noise from inside his body, his mechanical form stopped functioning. The light faded from his eyes.
Thud. He collapsed to the ground.
Inori crouched down and carefully examined the corpse. "A small gang leader possessing so much technology that even various national governments don't have... how strange."
"The gravity gun from the MOTH Engineering Department aside, the inertia blade and mechanical limbs are also mysteries. Judging by their design styles, they clearly weren't made by the same organization. I wonder where he cobbled together all this bizarre equipment."
"At the very least, that disgusting mechanical body... I don't think the MOTH Engineering Department would design something like that. As someone from Mad Hatter, who frequently 'borrows' and recycles MOTH equipment, I know their aesthetic standards are still intact."
"But one thing is certain—the organization that created this repulsive mechanical body must be in this city. Otherwise, what kind of hospital would perform such surgeries?"
...
A scream suddenly came from outside the clothing store.
"What the hell is that?! Oh my god... the chick... the chick turned into a monster!"
A gunman holding a firearm fell to the ground, babbling incoherently in terror.
He had been stationed outside as a lookout by the young boss. But when he turned around, he ran straight into a gigantic fat chicken.
The fat chicken wore a gangster-style ink-wash uniform and triangular sunglasses.
A golden sash hung around its plump waist, with a pair of nunchaku dangling from it.
Who had ever seen such a creature? It looked vicious at first glance!
And this massive chicken, taller than a human, triggered a deep, instinctive fear of giant creatures buried within human genes.
Cluck, cluck, cluck!
The fat chicken raised its tiny wings and adjusted its sunglasses. The gunman trembled as he drew his pistol and pointed it shakily at the white chicken.
He shouted, "Big chicken, don't come any closer! If you take another step, I'll shoot!"
He kept trying to pull the trigger, but in his panic, he had forgotten to release the safety.
A playful voice came from behind the enormous chicken, "What 'big chicken'? Its name is Zeo. In the future, it's going to become the Chief Operating Officer... the Black Chicken!"